Humanity
by Laval
Summary: Inspired by 'Her Turn to Run' by TommyRude. A look at life after Third Impact and what becomes of mankind.


Disclaimer: I don't Evangelion or any of these characters. I'm not making any   
money out of this.  
  
Humanity  
An Eva Fan Fic   
By Laval  
  
Inspired by "Her Turn to Run" by TommyRude  
Posted with author consent  
  
Warning – This fic contains spoilers.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
Humanity.   
Mankind.   
The greatest species ever to roam the Earth.   
  
God's children.   
  
We controlled everything at one time. In our prime we could create the might of   
thunder in a cable, we could contain the flow of a river in a pipe or we could   
capture the world and place it in a flimsy filmstrip.  
  
There was nothing above us save God, we were beyond the food chain, we were the   
masters of the Earth and at the same time the most endangered species on the   
planet. Our predator was the most vicious and vile of them all . .   
  
. . ourselves.  
  
Yet in the end our stubbornness won out and we survived, sort of. In the end we   
proved ourselves to be less than the Gods we imitated, we were nothing but   
animals, and as such when the great flood came two were spared.  
  
They were imperfect, both powerful and weak, both admirable and pitiful. They   
were everything that humanity ever was.  
  
Perhaps that was why they were chosen. Perhaps this was the final judgement. To   
reduce us all to two, to a relationship that shared equally strong volumes of   
hate and love and to see which would prevail.   
  
The answer now lived in a small apartment in Japan, the last shreds of a long   
lost people erased from existence by their own hand.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
Another untitled day was slowly maturing into night. The heat in the evening   
air was beginning to follow the creeping sun as it slowly began to wind it's   
way towards the end of it's journey casting it's pastel tones of dying red   
across the sky. Their kingdom stretched on forevermore in every direction, like   
a still silent ocean that only their movements could make ripples in, a world   
that was void and lifeless save the few birds that occasionally strayed   
overhead. It was the remains of a perished civilisation, a lost way of life.   
Derelict buildings stood abandoned and empty like moss-covered temples   
forgotten in the mists of time, rat-conquered subways and sewers like pillaged   
tombs. It was all this, and it was all theirs.  
  
A soft melody danced on the air as she hummed music of years ago, the name and   
origin of which long forgotten. It could have been a pop tune from her   
childhood or one of the great classical masterpieces or just a half imagined   
tune she had unwittingly created herself, it didn't matter which, with no   
records being kept everything seemed timeless now.   
  
She just hummed the song for it's pleasant sound as she prepared another tin   
soup dinner. She sat on a deck chair hunched over a small campfire as the pot   
boiled above it, the smoke wafting through the empty sky and mingling with the   
soft chords of her humming voice. In the past it would have felt stupid,   
cooking over a camp flame in your own back garden, it would have punctured her   
delicate pride as she embarrassed herself in front of the world but there was   
no longer a world left to judge her, the only ones left had been her and   
Shinji.  
  
Shinji. The poor boy would be wondering where his dinner was and from the   
inviting smell of the warm wafts she could tell it was ready. With a smile she   
lifted the pot and carried it indoors, leaving the fire to keep a lonely vigil   
over the empty world until it too faded to silence.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
"Whatcha reading Shin-Chan?" she asked as she walked into the soft glow of the   
living room, a thin channel of light being fed through a narrow window as   
pockets of candle light pierced holes in the looming darkness. She rested the   
warm soup on the small coffee table before him as she listened for his answer   
but none came, he didn't even look up. Figuring whatever it was must be totally   
engrossing she craned her neck round to read the title.  
  
"Misato's diary?" she laughed in surprise, "You shouldn't be reading that,   
stupid." She chided him softly with a playful smack across the back of the head   
but it was all for fun, there was no one left alive that would take offence to   
it.  
  
"But I guess it does remind you of the better times doesn't it," she sighed   
longingly as she sat herself down next to him, "All the memories of the others,   
of the world when it was so full and busy, of Eva."  
  
That last word brought a twinge of pain to her euphoric smile. Despite the   
blaring dent it had made in her life she often tried to ignore her memories of   
Eva, sometimes refusing to admit it had ever existed. It was easy when there   
was no one else. You could easily lie to yourself for your truth was the only   
truth, it was your word against no one's.  
  
But she couldn't erase the memories and the pain they brought. Those stinging   
wounds were still as fresh as they had been all those years ago.  
  
She shook her head slightly trying to purge those dark thoughts from her mind.   
She didn't want to depress herself again, it always ended up in the same wasted   
tears. Instead she let the real world slip back into her thoughts and focused   
on the pleasant lure of the warm soup before her. She lifted the spoon to her   
lips and began her meal.  
  
Her face immediately screwed up. It tasted foul. She reluctantly swallowed it   
like a spoonful of vile medicine but promised herself not to let another drop   
of that horrid brew touch her tongue. She glanced over and saw that even though   
he hadn't said anything Shinji hadn't touched his meal either.  
  
"It's not up to much is it?" she smiled weakly, trying to cover up her   
embarrassment and blushes, "Sorry, I'll go see if I can find something else."  
  
***************************************************************  
  
"Hmm," she pondered as she stared closely at the contents of the shop shelf.   
Her gentle whisper, though spoken angel soft, seemed to plod clumsily through   
the untouched silence of the empty shop. It was a true ghost town, everywhere   
was now. There was no electricity or running water, no forces outside nature   
and the remaining relics of humanity. Subtle tones of dying light flowed   
through the shop windows but as she wandered further into the heart of the   
building she could only search by candlelight. She now trailed the stick of   
melting wax across shelf after shelf in her quest for a replacement meal.  
  
It was easier to search by day when the bright warmth of summer would stream   
through the glass windows, filling the room with light and life and a stuffy   
greenhouse heat but dusk was descending rapidly and if she didn't finish soon   
she would have to trek home under starlight.   
  
But her spirits were dragging. She still felt bad about her earlier attempt at   
cooking. Shinji would have been so hungry, he would have been waiting patiently   
and she had let him down. Even in the face of her failings and his   
disappointment he hadn't breathed a single word of complaint. He was great in   
his own little way.  
  
A soft smile settled of her face. She was in paradise, she felt like a fallen   
leaf floating softly down the stream. Life was like that now, a gentle   
relaxing ride where you're part of nothing. There's no one to answer to, no one   
to judge you, no one to hurt you. You just float your way through life letting   
your destination become whatever way the wind blows.   
  
It was her own little world, her snug bubble severed away from the long line of   
the past. It was her release, a life where she was unconditionally accepted and   
loved, where her ugly flaws were exposed and counted as beautiful, where fear   
of scorn no longer existed as there was no one left who would mock her. This   
had become her life and she wrapped it round her like a gentle blanket of   
warmth and familiarity that brought her shelter and warmth in a cold, sterile,   
dead and lifeless world.  
  
With those thoughts she picked the first three items she came to and eagerly   
made her way home, back to her life of happiness.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
A fresh night was slowly resting itself firmly in the pure sky when Asuka   
finally reached home. The day was coming to a close, soon to be replaced with a   
near identical one in the eternal loop of constant summer. Only her footsteps   
made a sound as they marched past the smoking embers, up the creaking stairs   
and into the last home on Earth.  
  
"Hey, sorry it took so long but . . ." she began before she saw Shinji slumped   
on the sofa, unmoving and silent.   
  
"Baka," she smiled quietly, "I wasn't gone that long you dozy idiot."  
  
She walked over and picked him up with the gentlest of touches and carried him   
softly out of the room, blowing some of the candles out on her way.  
  
She passed the door were "Shin-Chan's lovely suite" still lay in pieces at the   
foot of the wooden frame. No one had been in that room for years now, it was   
filled with a murky darkness, stale and stagnant.   
  
On the shadowy floor of that room still lay the body of Shinji Ikari, the   
knife still lodged in his rotting ribs. He lay the same way he had that fateful   
night of raised voices and snapped tempers, a night long forgotten in Asuka's   
scrambled mind, and he had stayed that way every night since then.  
  
But Asuka just walked by, cradling the doll in her arms as her three year   
monologue continued.  
  
"Don't worry about that boy over there Shinji, he won't bother us."  
  
  
The End  
  
  
  
Author's note: I know it's unlikely that they would have Misato's diary but the   
whole point is they didn't, I don't think Misato even kept a diary, it's all   
just another aspect of Asuka's madness. It could have been any book or no book   
at all, I leave which up to you.  
  
In the reviews for my last darkfic it was mentioned that you could pretty much   
tell how it would end right from the start and although no one really complained   
about it I thought I would try and write a fic where the dark ending was less   
expected in the hope it would be more effective. That's why the beginning is so   
positive and upbeat and it's also the reason I posted it as a drama fic instead   
of choosing a more accurate genre. If I misled anyone then I'm sorry but I just   
wanted to create a false sense of security to try and strengthen the twist at   
the end.  
  
Anyway this was inspired by "Her Turn to Run" by TommyRude which can be found at   
his section on darkscribes (www.darkscribes.org). If you haven't read it then you  
should, the tone of the world in this fic was based totally from that story. My  
thanks to him for giving consent for this fic to be posted.  
  
Thanks for reading. 


End file.
